Lard, lard, lard in the masa. Hey if you're going to do it you might as
well go all the way. Actually, we usually buy the masa all made up at
the market.

Pork shoulder or other pork roast that will cook and fall apart and get
nice an tender (as in lean loin is bad). We skip the heads ;-)

Mom is in charge of tamales at our house and it's usually half with
green chile and pork and half with red chile and pork. Then more chile
to pour over the top. Mom did do chicken ones once as we had a non-pork
eating guest; said she was a vegetarian who ate fish and poultry, go
figure. And as I type this just now I think, crap there was lard in the
masa. Oh well, about 12 years too late to do anything about it. She
did eat pork in chinese restaurants because she said you couldn't avoid
it so at least we weren't the first to contaminate her, but I digress.

Back in the day mom also made sweet tamales with pineapple and raisins
inside for dessert.

It used to just be tamales but now that we kids are old enough to
participate we make sure there is some kind of green salad, avocado,
sour cream and occasionally rice or fruit on the side.

It is not a bad thing at all to just eat tamales. They are the best
part after all.

marcella

In article >,
Melba's Jammin' > wrote:

> Woo-hoo! My new best friend Soccorro The Tamale Empress said she'd
> bring my tamales to the Y this morning -- something about 8:00 to sign
> up for a yoga class. Ugh. I don't usually go until a bit later in the
> morning but this morning went to be there at 8:00. She wasn't there.
>
> Came home and found a voice message indicating that she would be there
> around 10:00, which is when I usually see her anyway. So I went back, a
> couple jars in a bag for her, at 10:00. She gave me a half dozen cooked
> tamales! She also brought a little container of salsa verde to
> accompany them. Hoo-yah!
>
> I toted them around with me for a few hours as I met a friend for lunch
> and improved the local economy somewhat at the Lands' End Inlet store.
> We had them for supper. With nothing but a green tossed salad and some
> of that salsa verde. They were so freakin' good! Then I saw a recipe
> on, I think, sonofsouth.com (I'd done a search for tamale recipes and
> this site has nice pictures.) that looks wicked. Something about adding
> two CUPS of oil to the masa! Eeeek!!!
>
> Couple questions for the panel: What kind of pork roast is used
> effectively for the filling? What else goes on the plate when tamales
> are on the menu? What I picture is a combination plate from El Loro
> Restaurante -- frijoles, arroz, an enchilada or something. Is is a
> *bad* thing to eat them unaccompanied? I don't know these things and am
> curious.